Why You Should Sleep On Your Left Side

A good night’s rest is so important to your health, energy and attitude. On a good night, we spend many hours resting and letting our bodies recover from the stress of the day.

The position you sleep in can either help or hinder your body’s functioning while you rest. The alignment of your internal organs may be one reason why sleeping on your left side is better for you.

WHY THE SIDE YOU SLEEP ON MATTERS

Although some of our organs come in mirrored pairs like our lungs and kidneys, most of the organs in our body are different on each side. For example, the bulk of our stomach and the spleen lies on the left side and most of our liver and our gallbladder is on the right side.

Sometimes we experience health problems that only affect one side of our body and not the other. You may notice your left eye was twitching but not the right. Maybe you experience a sudden cramp on your right side bit not the other. Consult with your physician if you have symptoms that are specific to one side of the body or the other.

THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD SLEEP ON YOUR LEFT SIDE

There are multiple reasons why you should sleep on your left side. Certified Ayurvedic Therapist Dr. John Drouillard says that left side sleeping posture has the following benefits for our well-being:

– Facilitate lymphatic drainage

– Heart pumps downhill

– Better elimination of bowels

– Support healthy spleen function

– Encourages proper digestion

– Helps circulation back to the heart

– Helps bile flow freely

The lymphatic duct is where lymph fluid drains into and it is located on the left side of the body. Lying on your left side while you sleep allows gravity to help the fluid drain to where it should go. After the lymph fluid is purified, it drains into the left side of the heart.

When you say the pledge, you put your hand over your heart, which is on the left side of your chest. When you sleep on your left side, the blood from the biggest artery in your heart heads down to your abdomen. Again, gravity is helping the heart work more efficiently in this position.

Another reason why Dr. Drouillard says that you should sleep on your left side is for easier bowel function. The large intestine dumps waste into the descending colon on your left side. Again, helping this process is another reason why you should sleep on your left side.

The spleen on the left side of our body filters blood so sleeping in this position helps blood to flow into the spleen more easily.

Lying on your left allows the liver and gallbladder on the right side of the body to secrete bile which then is assisted by gravity to flow into your stomach and pancreas on the left side.

Sleeping on your left side is so beneficial to digestion that Dr. Drouillard recommends lying on your left side for a brief nap following a big meal. He says that this will help give you energy after the meal rather than making you sleepy.

There may be a good reason why pregnant women should sleep on their left sides. For women in pregnancy, especially late in term, researchers at the Veterans General Hospital-Taipei found that the left side sleeping position was the most beneficial. This is due to the enhanced blood pressure lowering effect that this sleep position provides for the heart.

Side sleeping can be beneficial over back sleeping to prevent snoring. For those who have sleep apnea, side sleeping is a preventative tool. With sleep apnea, the breathing becomes blocked by the relaxed tongue and the patient stops breathing periodically through the night. Side sleeping fixes this, although either side is better than back sleeping for those with sleep apnea.

Although you may start your sleep on your left side, very few people wake up exactly in the same pose they went to sleep in. If during sleep you occasionally wake yourself enough to realize what position you are in, try resuming sleep on your left side to continue to have the health benefits that left side sleeping gives you.

WHY RIGHT IS RIGHT (FOR SOME)

Certain health conditions may benefit from sleeping on the right side, rather than the left side. For example researchers at the Sleep Research Laboratory of the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute found that patients with Congestive Heart Failure rolled onto their right sides more often than their left sides as they slept. Researchers believe that heart failure patients do this as a way to protect themselves from discomfort associated with the enlarged heart beating against the chest cavity.

Similarly, a study published in the American Journal of Cardiology found that patients with Coronary Artery Disease should sleep on their right sides because doing so increased the interval between heartbeats.